SAN JOSE, CA - APRIL 16: Patrik Berglund #21 of the St Louis Blues shoots the puck in on an uncovered net against the San Jose Sharks in the first period in Game Three of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at HP Pavilion on April 16, 2012 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Are the St. Louis Blues this good with the man advantage or are the San Jose Sharks just that bad? In the regular season, the Sharks ranked 29th in the league when it came to killing penalties and they certainly weren’t able to bailout their punished teammates on Monday.

The Blues converted on three of their four power-play opportunities and that’s the reason they came away with a 4-3 victory on Monday and took a 2-1 series lead.

“We’re not going to reinvent the wheel,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said in reference to the team’s struggles when it comes to killing penalties. “We’re going to do what we do and we’re going to do it better.”

McLellan thinks Patrik Berglund’s goal on St. Louis’ first power-play attempt on Monday might have hurt them for the rest of the game.

“It affects your confidence and your ability to keep going,” McLellan said. “You can feel it a little bit on the bench.”

To San Jose’s credit, they did a much better job of containing the Blues’ power-play units in the first two contests. They’ll get a chance to bounce back in Game 4 on Thursday.

Typical response from a coach who has no clue. The sharks entire coaching staff is a joke. Instead of putting Brad Winchester in the lineup he keeps putting Dominic Moore, TJ Galliardi and Torrey Mitchell on the ice. Combined those 3 could barely make a decent 4th line in the AHL. Winchester, Ferrerio and Handzus are all better players. And Jim Vandermeer is better then White. Yet the only adjustment our coach makes is too juggle the line combos. His 1990’s PK brings back memory of Doug Wilson’s days as an average player. And his passive style seems to fit in well with Wilson and the rest of the Sharks ownership group.

The Sharks PK system against the Blues has been so insanely immobile I’m not sure what they’ve been told. “Get out there, form your diamond, and hold your ground. They’re not a great offensive team, just stand there, they’ll screw up eventually.” I haven’t seen the Sharks PK this static since Calgary would routinely score 10 seconds into their PP a few years back. What sucks is the Sharks can put together a strong PK while being very mobile and putting pressure on the puck. It’s so frustrating seeing the team just stand around with their sticks up their asses on the PK.

The Sharks are a lot better than this, but right now it looks like they don’t want to be, and like finfan88shark said, that falls on coaching.

Sharks are getting out-goalied. Also, get Demers off the team. There’s a good start

sjshark714 - Apr 17, 2012 at 4:57 PM

Not even close to the problem… by all accounts the goaltending has been a dead heat. the 5 on 5 play in total has been essentially a dead heat, with the slight edge going to the Sharks in this series. The Blues’ 5 on 5 offense isn’t great at all, and the Sharks can handle it fine, so can Nemo. But the PK is brutal… though EVEN THAT wouldn’t lose them games if they could convert on a PP or 2 per game. But YOU CANNOT be absolutely TERRIBLE on the PK and PP and expect to do anything but lose 4-1… and it was 4-1… if you’re not gonna show up until the last 2 minutes don’t show up at all. Can’t put any of it on Nemo though. Shake it up and bring some toughness back.

Niemi si the only one playing good .. Cant blame Nemo if it wasnt for him it would be a llllooootttt worse. Coaching is a issue as much as i like Frodo something has to change and at this point why not go with winchester dont agree with ferrio but it shows how much we need mcginn and thats a mark against wilson. 3 trades no impact.